Will Dean Blais Be The First Casualty of UNO's Baxter Arena Debacle?

Tom Shatel of the Omaha World-Herald had an ominous conversation with UNO hockey coach Dean Blais, who all but said that his time is up at UNO. He's clearly not happy with what's happening at UNO, and isn't confident in the direction of the school.

“It’s good here,” Blais said. “But a real big loss for me is John Christensen. He and his wife are two of the biggest fans we have, and supported hockey to the max.

 “He had your back. As a coach, nothing is more important than knowing the chancellor, the guy in charge, has your back. That will be important.

“It’s like Bo Pelini over in Lincoln, the chancellor didn’t have his back.”

Ohhh, he said the "B" word, which will certainly ruffle more than a few feathers around here. Lack of support from the chancellor was the ultimate end to Frank Solich, and once Tom Osborne wasn't around to stand behind Bo Pelini, Pelini was gone as well. It's no secret that neither coach was particularly well liked by Harvey Perlman, and that's something that Bo Pelini referenced when he was hired at Youngstown State.

It's clear that UNO's Baxter Arena isn't meeting the promises that were used to justify it's construction in the first place. Instead of solving UNO's financial problems, it's magnifying them. And the repercussions are simply not good. Trev Alberts is dealing with a $600,000 budget cut to help deal with the unanticipated extra expenses of maintaining an arena 365 days a year.  That's $600,000 that's not available to do the other things that UNO needs to do to field a national contender hockey program.  Full cost of attendance scholarships? Not happening, and not happening any time soon.

The uncertainty over what UNO can do - and will have to do - as a result of the debacle that is Baxter Arena's financials that clouds the future of UNO hockey.  And that has Dean Blais looking longingly towards the golf course and fishing hole, and that's making a bad situation even worse.  Who would succeed Blais?  It's certainly not somebody on the current staff.  Would UNO be forced to return Mike Kemp behind the bench?  Not that Kemper is a bad coach...but he's already wearing too many hats as arena manager and assistant athletic director.  Mike Hastings?  Could UNO afford him now?  And would he want to jump into the UNO situation?

Sad to say that the future of the program looks almost as bleak as it did 10 years ago. If only the solution were as simple as cancelling a vice-chancellor's subscription to SiriusXM...